With Options Slim, Homewood Continues Fight To Keep Country Club

HOMEWOOD, IL — Despite narrowing options, officials with the Village of Homewood reiterated their vow to save the Calumet Country Club from being converted into a 1-million-square-foot industrial park and its land annexed into Hazel Crest.

No action was taken at the special meeting convened Wednesday night. Mayor Rich Hofeld said the informational session was in line with the board's promise to apprise residents of the latest developments.

Hofeld and village attorney Christopher Cummings told the audience of roughly two hundred residents that, as of now, Homewood has three options. All would be uphill battles, he said, and purchasing the land outright is not one of the options.

"It is our intention if at all possible to keep this property in the village," Cummings said.

Attorneys for Arizona-based Diversified Partners formally applied in July to disconnect the 130-acre Calumet Country Club property from Homewood. The company bought the property in 2018 from a group of club members, residents and others who formed a limited liability company called CCC Investors to operate the struggling golf course.

Diversified Partners later approached village officials to propose redeveloping the land. After the two sides could not agree on a vision for the it, the company pursued annexation into the Village of Hazel Crest. The former country club parcel is located at the northwest corner of Dixie Highway and 175th Street. About 116 acres sit in Homewood; the rest remain in Hazel Crest.

Hofeld told a surprised audience Wednesday about complicated negotiations during the past two months to try to buy the land. He said that on July 24, a member of the LLC approached him to tell him that the largest shareholder of the LLC would be willing to sell the land. The village met with the man and made an offer.

On August 1, the president of the LLC told village officials he knew nothing of the deal and the man had not been authorized to negotiate. Still, officials persisted and made a $3.2 million offer, in line with what they had been told was acceptable.

By August 14, village attorney Christopher Cummings, Hofeld and representatives from the LLC and their attorney met to discuss the sale. The attorney asked why the village was making an offer.

Taken aback, Hofeld said, they explained the situation. The attorney notified them that Walt Brown, founder and CEO of Diversified Partners, had already made an offer and held an option on the land. The price to make him change his mind: $17.5 million — a price Homewood officials had never seen and can't afford. The attorney declined to give Cummings a copy of the contract, citing confidentiality.

Meanwhile, officials explored other avenues. Village Manager Jim Marino explained that so far, Homewood had exhausted potential funders or partnerships for purchasing the land. The Forest Preserve, Park District, Nature Conservancy and Trust For Public Lands were not interested in assisting, were unable to, or did not have the funds to purchase the land. The Illinois Tollway Authority had not yet responded to requests to meet to discuss buying the northern section of the property, he said. And it is not yet time to approach the Environmental Protection Agency for assistance or interference.

Cummings then said the village was left with three options. First, he said, Homewood is fighting the annexation and needs to file its complaint with the court by Sept. 9. A copy will be posted on the village's website, he said. Cummings said the village has retained experts through Chicago-based Klein, Thorpe and Jenkins to assist.

He cautioned that there is no guarantee Homewood will win that battle because the law sides with property owners. Illinois municipal law lists six factors property owners must prove to disconnect from a property. Diversified Partners can clearly prove the first three, Cummings said.

"I don't want to sugar coat or give anyone false hope in terms of the six criteria," he said.

The village also will subpoena Brown's contract to buy the land through the discovery process in the annexation lawsuit. Officials need information from the contract, including land costs and development plans, to build a better blueprint going forward, Cummings added.

The third option, eminent domain, is likely not viable, he said. To condemn and take over a property could cost the village years and tens of millions of dollars with no guarantee of a favorable outcome. In the end, the land also must be for public use. So far, Cummings added, early development ideas do not include keeping the golf course there because the market is saturated with them.

Whatever the case, he said, Homewood would fight the deal, but would do so only after careful planning.

"At the end of the day, if you push too hard and they end up being in Hazel Crest, that is the worst outcome and a rotten plan," he said.

Homewood residents said they agreed.

"I have very strong concerns about the environmental impact," said resident Carol Vance. She said that she believed a strong group of supporters could persuade key players to change their minds about annexation and the industrial park, much the way residents who fought the proposed Glenwood power plant did.

Steve Wlodarksi said he worried that the massive industrial park would ruin Homewood's small-town appeal and that residents would flee, leaving little or no tax base. Noise and air pollution will further ruin Homewood's quality of life.

"We must let our elected officials know that we are saying 'no' to any heavy industrial use, 'no' to any use generating heavy volumes of semi-truck traffic and 'no' to any chemical process occupancies," he said.

Gary Dingle, the environmental chairman for the South Suburban NAACP concurred.

"These types of things are often put in African-American communities like Hazel Crest," he said. "They have detrimental effects on the lives of our people and we must fight against it."

Early proposals for redeveloping the country club did not include the industrial complex. According to village officials, the company proposed several acceptable concepts that included building an IKEA store, hotels, strip malls or age-restricted housing on the site. Those plans included leaving much of the green space intact. However, during the weeks of discussion, Diversified Partners dramatically changed its proposals to build rock-crushing centers, industrial storage containers and distribution centers on the site because, its representatives said, that's what the market for the area would accept.

All of those options were unacceptable, Mayor Rich Hofeld said in July, and the board later officially condemned those plan.

However, Brown of Diversified Partners told the Chicago Business Journal that the $93 million-project would bring 600 to 800 new jobs to the area. He also said the project would add walking and biking trails and water features to the site, and said the property would keep its two lakes.

Also watch and read:

• The recorded version of the meeting.
• Live tweeting from Wednesday's meeting.
• Homewood Faces Fight Over Calumet Country Club Annexation
• Homewood Will Fight Industrial Park Plans On Golf Course Site
• Can Homewood Weather A Legal Battle For Calumet Country Club?